Lakers Dominate Fourth Quarter, Take Series Lead

Through three games, here’s one thing we know about the Lakers and Nuggets —  they are evenly matched. Every game has come down to the final possessions.

Which is why it is nice to have Kobe Bryant on your team, the best closer in the game.

So tired he said he after the game he couldn’t even feel his legs, Kobe still scored 13 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter, Pau Gasol and Trevor Ariza each added eight — plus Ariza had another key steal late — and the Lakers won 103-97 and take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals.

After 16 straight wins at home, the Nuggets and their fans came into the game expecting a win. And they came out trying to throw a haymaker, particularly Carmelo Anthony, who scored 14 points in the first quarter. The Nuggets led by as many as eight.

But after two tight games in Los Angeles, you knew this game was going to be close in the end.

They started that by shutting down Anthony in the second half — the Lakers changed their defense to leave Trevor Ariza isolated on the Nuggets leading scorer and Ariza smothered him (and Anthony missed shots he was making a few days ago). The Lakers bigs providing help also seemed more aware of him and when they had to help. Anthony had three second half points, all from the free throw line.

Meanwhile the Lakers finally started attacking the rim, and it showed as the Denver defense — the Lakers got to the line 45 times (they only made 31, and if this had been a Laker loss much would have been made of this). Anthony fouled out.

Then there were the big plays down the stretch by Los Angeles. Kobe hit a contested three with 1:08 left that seemed almost like a “Hey LeBron, look what I can do” answer. Pau Gasol had four straight points on a night he finally got the ball in better positions to attack and he did something with it (Gasol finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and was a team best +9 on the night). And for all the complaints about free throw shooting, the Lakers made their last seven in a row.

Then there was another key Trevor Ariza steal of an inbound pass. With 36 seconds left the Nuggets were inbounding the ball down two. Again Lamar Odom — all 6’10” and long arms of him — were on the passer Kenyon Martin and that led to a sloppy inbound that Ariza stole. Anthony used his sixth foul on the plan and Ariza hit the free throws that basically sealed the win for the Lakers.

Los Angeles ahead 2-1 shifts a lot of pressure to Denver for game four — they cannot go down 3-1 (with two games left in LA) if they are going to win the series.

Most likely, the winner of game four will turn out to be the team that executes best in the last two minutes — that’s what decided the first three games. But Denver is still trying to find it’s Kobe Bryant. The Lakers know who theirs is.